Unconditional Love

Lalaith poses quite the question here. What is unconditional love and who can/has given or received it? Most loves in this world are not unconditional. I love you ... unless you cheat. I love you ... unless you lie. I love you ... unless you don't love me. You get the idea.

If unconditional love equals perfect love (taking angels out of the picture for the time being), God is the only One Who can love unconditionally. All humans sin. Does this mean that humans can't love? Of course not. Have you ever seen a little kid with the puppy that he's wanted for a long time? He LOVES that little puppy. Have you ever had someone very close to you die? Why is there grief and loss? You loved them. Everyone loves someone or something.

There is an enormous difference between "tainted and false" and "incomplete." Love doesn't have to be tainted or false to be incomplete. A puzzle doesn't have be messed up and put together all wrong for it to be incomplete - it just has to have one piece missing, or even one of the little nubs from a piece missing. It's not tainted; it's not dirty or soiled. It's just not what it could be. It can even still be beautiful; it's just not best.

Unconditional love is the completed puzzle. Unconditional love is when God loved us before we existed, before and after the Fall, and while we hated Him; and He loved us so fully and completely that Christ came down and died so that the ones that God loved could be with Him forever.

It is sad when Christians fail to live up to their calling to be known by their love - however, there is an interesting point here that most people completely skip. The Bible doesn't say, like the song, "They'll know you are Christians by your love." John 13:35 says, "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another." One to another. People are supposed to know we're Christians by how we love each other - NOT by how we love the unsaved. Are we supposed to love the unsaved? Absolutely. But the sign that people are supposed to see that we belong to Christ, is the love we have for each other.

Lalaith talked a lot about things that I have no reference point for, and there weren't a lot of details, so it's hard to get into any of it. But I will say that people and things being rejected on the basis of not being Christian should not be applied to very many things. Aside from belief systems, spouses, and possibly business partners (I'm not really sure what I think about that one. . .), I don't know what else that there's a Biblical reason to simply disregard because they're not Christian. And even then, listening to or discussing other belief systems can be very good for you. Questions are good for Christians and non-Christians. Questions help a person solidify their beliefs, either in what they currently believe or in something else which they find easier to understand.